The Second Chance Rancher

by Kate Pearce

  “It was a fun evening.”

  Daisy looked dubiously at him. “You certainly impressed everyone.”

  “I did my best,” Jackson said modestly.

  “So, seeing that they almost approve of you—which is, by the way, unheard of—I thought I could go out with you while I got on with what I really need to do.”

  “Which is?” Jackson inquired.

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” Daisy hastened to reassure him. “But I can’t pretend to like you. That wouldn’t be fair.”

  “No, it wouldn’t.” Jackson paused to consider her words and attempted to make sense of them. “So you wanted me to be your fake boyfriend?”

  “Exactly.” She beamed at him. “But I guess you’d work that out pretty fast, and I don’t want you to feel used or anything.”

  Jackson suppressed a smile at her earnest expression.

  “How long will you need this alibi for?”

  “At least the next six months.” She blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s really hard leading a double life with a face like mine.”

  “I can imagine.” Jackson sipped his iced tea. “Is what you’re doing on the side illegal?”

  “No, of course not.” Daisy looked shocked. “It’s perfectly legitimate. It’s just I promised my family I wouldn’t get involved with it anymore, and I have.”

  “Online gambling?” Jackson inquired.

  “No. It’s a fully paid and valid job.”

  “Drug dealing?”

  “Nope.”

  “Stripping?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “As if I had the body for that anyway.”

  Jackson didn’t reply as he happily imagined just that in his head.

  “Why can’t you just tell your family?”

  She sighed. “I don’t want to hurt them and I don’t want them worrying about me when there’s no need. We’re so close to completing this phase of the project that I just need a few more months before I can tell them and hand it over to someone else.”

  She reached for his hand. “I know it sounds kooky, but can you at least consider helping me out here?”

  Their food arrived, and Jackson tucked in as he considered her plea. He did want to go out with her, that was a given, and she needed his help. He liked being useful, and he was starting to enjoy the idea of leading a double life with Daisy.

  “So this fake relationship of ours,” Jackson said, “what would it entail?”

  “The usual things.” Daisy shrugged. “Taking me out, hanging out with me, calling me on the phone, texting me.”

  “Kissing you?”

  “Wow, you are direct, aren’t you?” She worried at her lower lip. “Kissing in public has to be a yes, or else we would look fake.”

  “With tongue or without it?”

  Daisy gave him an exasperated look. “Really, Jackson?”

  “I’m just trying to make sure we’re both on the same page here. I wouldn’t want to assume anything,” Jackson pointed out. “Same goes with physical contact. Can I hug you, hold your hand, and get to second base?”

  “How about we negotiate the finer details as they come up?” Daisy suggested.

  “Fine by me.” Jackson held up his hands.

  “Fine for you to be my fake boyfriend?” Daisy asked hopefully.

  “Yes, but I have a couple of conditions of my own.” Jackson put down his fork.

  “Okay, fire away,” Daisy said.

  “Even though we’re pretending, I want you to give it your all.”

  She nodded. “Okay. I can do that. What else?”

  “Maybe consider making it a real relationship at some point?” Jackson raised his eyebrows.

  “That’s a big ask.” Daisy sat back and folded her arms over her chest. “You do realize that due to my work commitments, I won’t actually be spending much time with you?”

  “I’m aware of that.” Jackson nodded. “While we get to know each other, I’d like you to keep an open mind.”

  “About having a serious relationship with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I can’t do that,” Daisy said. “I’m not . . . ready for that level of commitment.”

  Jackson stared at her, but the conviction in her eyes didn’t falter. Okay, so he’d been pushing her a bit, but he was more than happy to back off. He’d take what he’d been offered and work with that. It wasn’t the first time in his life he’d had to take a roundabout way to get to what he really wanted.

  “Okay, then.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m in.”

  “That’s awesome!” Daisy squeaked and leaped to her feet.

  Jackson barely had time to stand himself before she hugged him, went up on tiptoe, and gave him a kiss right on his lips.

  He wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her back before releasing her.

  “One more thing,” she said. “We don’t tell anyone this isn’t real.”

  “Not even my brother?”

  “No.” She held his gaze. “If we’re going to do this right, it’s going to have to remain between the two of us.”

  “But you’re a terrible liar, and I blurt shit out all the time,” Jackson reminded her.

  “Then we’re going to have to become the most convincing pair of fake lovers in the history of the universe,” Daisy said and returned to her seat.

  “Great.” Jackson sat as well. He’d always been the kind of man who made up his mind fast, and his job in Qatar had only intensified that trait. He rarely regretted his decisions, and being with Daisy just felt right. If it blew up in his face, then so be it. He’d dealt with far worse. “So when would you like to have our first date?”

  * * *

  Daisy sent a text to Adam as she closed up the flower shop for the day.

  Will be hanging out with Jackson at the Red Dragon for a while this evening. Don’t expect me back for dinner. x

  He texted back immediately.

  Okay. Behave yourself. x

  She and Jackson had decided that the quickest and best way to announce they were a couple was to spend an hour in Morgantown’s one and only bar and diner. Everyone in town went there. Once they were spotted together, gossip would spread, and soon everyone in the valley would know.

  She had a conference call at nine. Three hours in the bar would give her and Jackson plenty of time to eat, socialize, and hopefully spread the word. Going into the back of the flower shop, she checked her laptop to make sure she had the time right for the meeting, answered a couple of queries about flowers, and shut it down.

  She’d asked Jackson to meet her at the bar at six. After brushing her hair and applying some lipstick, she locked up the shop and walked along the street to the corner where the bar stood. It wasn’t much to look at, but inside, the welcome was always genuine and the company was great.

  A waft of beer and spicy food engulfed her as she opened the door and saw Jackson sitting at the bar chatting with Nancy. He turned as she approached and gave her a huge smile, which was so sexy, she almost melted on the spot.

  “There you are, Daisy. I was just telling Nancy about how we met.”

  Jackson held out a barstool for her and boosted her onto it.

  “Like how exactly?” Daisy felt like an actor flubbing her very first line.

  “Like him asking you for advice about flowers for me, and then realizing he liked you more than me all along,” Nancy helpfully informed her.

  Daisy gazed at Jackson with new respect. He’d kept close to their actual first meet, which made things much easier to remember.

  “That’s right. He wanted to give you roses,” Daisy said.

  “Dude, no.” Nancy laughed, showing her pierced tongue. “Not unless you can get black roses. Can you?”

  “They go pretty dark, but I don’t think anyone has actually managed to produce a truly black one yet.” Daisy fiddled with the coaster on the bar. “I can check if you like?”

  “It’s okay. I doubt I’ll be needing a wedding bouquet anytim
e soon.” Nancy handed Daisy a glass of cider. “Are you two going to eat here tonight?”

  “Yeah, we are. We’re just waiting on Cauy and Rachel,” Jackson said.

  “Then why don’t you grab a booth before it gets too busy, and I’ll send them through when they arrive?”

  “Thanks, Nancy.” Jackson grinned at her before turning to carefully lift Daisy down off the stool like she weighed nothing, which certainly wasn’t the case. “See you in a bit.”

  He took Daisy’s glass of cider off the bar, held her hand, and walked through to the diner part of the place, which was run by Bella Williams, the owner’s mother.

  “So far so good,” Jackson said as he settled them in the booth. “Nancy was really pleased you’d decided to go out with me.”

  “Only because it means you won’t be bothering her,” Daisy murmured as she slid in beside him.

  “Possibly,” Jackson conceded. He’d swapped out his thick work shirt for a light blue checked one with a white T-shirt underneath. If it was possible for a man to look even hotter, he’d somehow managed it. It suddenly occurred to Daisy that keeping her hands off Jackson might be more difficult than she’d anticipated. He wasn’t quite as lean as some of the cowboys she’d grown up with, but he was definitely fit.

  “While we’ve got a moment, are you okay to stick with the story I told Nancy?” Jackson asked as he checked out the menu. “It seemed easier to stay with the truth.”

  “Apart from the bit when I closed the door in your face?” Daisy said sweetly. “That was way funnier.”

  “I suppose from your side of the door it was.” Jackson looked over his shoulder. “There’s Cauy and Rachel. This is when things get serious. If we can convince them that we’re going out together, the rest of it will be a cakewalk.”

  * * *

  Jackson took a firm grip on Daisy’s hand as they exited the bar. He’d enjoyed the meal with his brother and Rachel and was proud that neither he nor Daisy had put a foot wrong.

  “It’s no trouble, really.”

  “Are you sure?” Daisy looked up at him doubtfully. “I’m quite capable of walking back to the shop by myself, you know. Morgantown is very safe.”

  “You can never be too careful,” Jackson said. “And I wanted to ask you how you think it went with Cauy.”

  “He seemed pretty skeptical,” Daisy admitted.

  “That’s his normal worldview.” Jackson looked both ways before he crossed the empty street. “I’ll let you know if any awkward questions come up when I get back tonight.”

  “Okay.” She punched in the code for the alarm and unlocked the door of the shop before turning to face him. “Good night, Jackson. Thanks for a lovely evening.”

  He braced one arm against the doorframe over her head. “Hold up.”

  “What?”

  “The kissing thing?”

  “Oh.” She looked adorably confused.

  “Do you want to give it a trial run?” Jackson suggested.

  “I suppose we should.”

  She didn’t sound very keen, but Jackson didn’t allow himself to get distracted from his goal. He leaned down, angling his head to avoid clocking her one with his Stetson, and kissed her soft lips.

  “Mmm,” Daisy murmured. “Nice.”

  “Yeah?” He kissed her again, changing the angle with each kiss until she moved with him and brought one of her hands up to his shoulder, holding him in place, which wasn’t necessary because he sure as hell wasn’t going anywhere. “More?”

  “Mmm.”

  He nipped at her lower lip, and she let him inside her mouth, and then Jackson forgot everything else except the taste of her, and kissing her, and . . .

  Daisy wrenched her mouth away from his, breathing hard. “Okay, I think we should stop now.”

  Jackson took a moment to process that when everything in him was yelling for him to continue, and reluctantly eased away from her.

  “Got it.”

  Now she was staring longingly at his mouth. If she kept doing it, he was going to grab hold of her and kiss her until he could find somewhere horizontal where he could make love to her until they were both exhausted.

  “Good night.” Daisy whisked herself out of his arms and inside the door. A second later, he heard the lock click shut.

  He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to ignore the suddenly uncomfortable fit of his jeans. Daisy had obviously not been as overwhelmed by his kiss as he was; otherwise she would have dragged him in by the hand and had her wicked way with him.

  He’d kissed his fair share of women, but nothing had prepared him for that kiss with Daisy. He’d almost felt out of control and that wasn’t acceptable. He was a planner, he took his time with things, and he wasn’t the kind of guy who went off half-cocked.

  With that reminder, he glanced down at his jeans, where his dick still didn’t seem to have gotten the message that it wasn’t getting any.

  After another deep breath, Jackson turned away from the shop and went back to the parking lot behind the bar. Music drifted from the door and the roar of the people of Morgantown having a good time. He could go back in there and talk to Nancy, but he realized he didn’t have the stomach for it. He squared his shoulders.

  If Daisy had wanted to set the scene for their fake romance, mission accomplished. Anything else that had happened along the way was 100 percent on him.

  * * *

  Daisy slid down the door and just stayed there, holding her breath until she heard Jackson’s cowboy boots clomping away. She pressed her fingers to her mouth and relived the most amazing kiss of her life. Why had Jackson done that to her? She didn’t want to lust after him. It wasn’t fair that he was so hot and kissed like a dream.

  It was also a long time since she’d been kissed, so perhaps she was exaggerating somewhat. Encouraged by this more pragmatic point of view, she got off the floor, checked she’d locked the outer door, took off her shoes, and walked into her workroom. Her laptop sat where she’d left it. She typed in her password, found her headset, and settled in to catch up with the comments on the communal message board her team shared in the cloud.

  She’d majored in systems design at college with a focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence and was currently working with a small team developing a completely new product for health care. The work was slow, painful, and on the cutting edge of what was scientifically possible, and she loved every minute of it.

  Except when she hadn’t.

  The combination of living and working in a start-up in Silicon Valley 24-7 had screwed her up badly for a while, which was why she now owned a flower shop and worked remotely. It had taken her six years to crash and burn, and two more to recover from selling the company. She constantly strove for balance in her life, but every so often, the demands of the project tried to take over again. With the new company, she and the team had deliberately taken things way more slowly, which she appreciated. It was only now, when they were getting ready to test the market, that things had started to heat up again.

  “Hey, you there, Daiz?”

  A familiar voice came through her headset, and a pop up appeared on the corner of her screen, displaying her friend, Ian Chung, waving at her. She and her four partners had met in college and worked together ever since. They’d been through the debacle of their first company and were determined not to make the same mistakes with their new start-up.

  “Yes, I’m here!” She waved back. “What’s going on?”

  Before Ian got into it, Daisy made sure to set an alarm. She had one and a half hours to get things done before she needed to get home and convince her brothers she’d spent a wonderful evening with Jackson. And she’d enjoyed her evening a lot—especially that kiss . . . Daisy resolutely set her thoughts back to work. She’d think about Jackson’s extreme hotness as a reward for getting through the problems of the next hour or so.

  Chapter Four

  “Jackson?” Cauy yelled and banged on his door. “You up? Cattle nee
d moving.”

  What cattle?

  Jackson opened one eye and contemplated the clock on his bedside table. Did they have cows, or was Cauy just trolling him? It was six in the morning, and he’d spent half the night thrashing around fantasizing about Daisy Miller. His bed looked like he’d been in a fight, and his eyes weren’t that keen on opening at all.

  Cauy banged on the door again. “I’ve made some coffee and pancakes, so get a wiggle on.”

  Their mom used to say that to get them out the door to catch the bus into Bridgeport for high school. It was funny hearing Cauy saying the same thing. Jackson groaned and got up, rubbing a hand over his unshaven jaw. Since leaving the air force, his standards had definitely dropped. He went to use the bathroom and contemplated growing a beard. Would Daisy like that? A lot of women seemed to . . .

  The kitchen door slammed shut, bringing Jackson back to the present. If he didn’t put some clothes on, Cauy might end up having to do everything without his help, which wasn’t fair.

  When he finally stumbled into the kitchen, there was an envelope with his name on it propped up against his favorite coffee mug. He ignored the letter while he focused on the coffee. He rolled up several pancakes and stuffed them in his mouth followed by a glug of maple syrup directly from the glass bottle.

  Grace, Cauy’s dog, happily licked up the butter and syrup spilling out of the end of his pancake roll and looked up expectantly at him. Grace loved coming out and helping, but her enthusiasm didn’t match her skill set. Cauy had reluctantly decided she needed to stay home and mind her puppies while they were gone.

  Jackson washed his hands and splashed water in his face to dislodge the sticky sensation on his stubbled chin. Maybe a beard wasn’t such a great idea after all. He went into the mudroom to put on his boots, thick coat, and Stetson. Cauy would already be in the barn mucking out their horses’ stalls and making sure the Morgan Ranch stock were all present and correct when their ranch hands came to turn them out.

  Whatever his private doubts about his ability to settle down and become a real rancher, Jackson loved this time of the morning, when everything was new, crisp, and fresh. He buttoned up his sheepskin jacket as he walked across to the barn and feedstore. Cauy was whistling, and that cheered Jackson up even more. After his brother was injured in an oil-rig explosion, Jackson had worried Cauy would never recover. Rebuilding Lymond Ranch and finding the love of his life in Rachel Morgan had transformed him.